Sea levels rise could mean floods in London
The Ice2Sea project brings together a number of universities around Europe to study the speed glaciers and ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica are melting due to global warming.
The most comprehensive study ever carried out into impact of climate change on ice sheets concluded melting ice from land mass could add 3 to 37cm to sea level rise by 2100.
There is a 5 per cent chance sea level rise could go up by 84cm due to melting ice.
Including the extra sea level rise from the expansion of the ocean as it warms and storm surges this could take global sea level rise beyond 1m by the end of the century.
The scientists from the British Antarctic Survey and University of Bristol also looked at regional effects of sea level rise.
Due to gravitational pull and weather patterns, some areas of the world will be more severely affected than others.
Small islands in the Pacific will suffer higher sea level rise while around the Antarctic and Greenland, sea levels could go down.
Around the UK there is a one in 20 chance sea levels will rise by around one metre by 2100.
The Ice2Sea report warned that without improvement to the current Thames Barrier, this would mean London is at risk of flooding every ten years. Even a sea level rise of 50cm would risk a major flooding event every 100 years.
The Environment Agency does not plan to replace the Thames Barrier before 2070.
Around East Anglia and other vulnerable coastlines, where there is less incentive to put in vast flood defences, flooding is even more likely.
Sensitive natural environments such as the Machair wildlflower meadows on Scotland and Ireland’s low lying Atlantic coasts are even more vulnerable.
The new figures on sea level rise will be fed into the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report due out this September that will influence world leaders on how to deal with the impacts of global warming.
Tony Payne, Professor of Glaciology at Bristol University, said the figures have a wide variation because of the level of uncertainty about climate change and how ice will react.
He said if global warming is greater than expected or glaciers melt faster after a certain “tipping point is reached” then sea level rise will be even greater. Beyond 2100 there may be sea level rise of several metres he warned, as large parts of Antarctica melt.
“The ice sheets’ main contribution will not be in this century but you should really worry about their contribution in the centuries after.”
The most comprehensive study ever carried out into impact of climate change on ice sheets concluded melting ice from land mass could add 3 to 37cm to sea level rise by 2100.
There is a 5 per cent chance sea level rise could go up by 84cm due to melting ice.
Including the extra sea level rise from the expansion of the ocean as it warms and storm surges this could take global sea level rise beyond 1m by the end of the century.
The scientists from the British Antarctic Survey and University of Bristol also looked at regional effects of sea level rise.
Due to gravitational pull and weather patterns, some areas of the world will be more severely affected than others.
Small islands in the Pacific will suffer higher sea level rise while around the Antarctic and Greenland, sea levels could go down.
Around the UK there is a one in 20 chance sea levels will rise by around one metre by 2100.
The Ice2Sea report warned that without improvement to the current Thames Barrier, this would mean London is at risk of flooding every ten years. Even a sea level rise of 50cm would risk a major flooding event every 100 years.
The Environment Agency does not plan to replace the Thames Barrier before 2070.
Around East Anglia and other vulnerable coastlines, where there is less incentive to put in vast flood defences, flooding is even more likely.
Sensitive natural environments such as the Machair wildlflower meadows on Scotland and Ireland’s low lying Atlantic coasts are even more vulnerable.
The new figures on sea level rise will be fed into the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report due out this September that will influence world leaders on how to deal with the impacts of global warming.
Tony Payne, Professor of Glaciology at Bristol University, said the figures have a wide variation because of the level of uncertainty about climate change and how ice will react.
He said if global warming is greater than expected or glaciers melt faster after a certain “tipping point is reached” then sea level rise will be even greater. Beyond 2100 there may be sea level rise of several metres he warned, as large parts of Antarctica melt.
“The ice sheets’ main contribution will not be in this century but you should really worry about their contribution in the centuries after.”
You can return to the main Market News page, or press the Back button on your browser.
